


(The) Agency

by facetofcathy



Category: White Collar
Genre: 1000-3000 words, Character of Color, Gen, POV Original Character, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-02
Updated: 2010-02-02
Packaged: 2017-10-06 23:20:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/58835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/facetofcathy/pseuds/facetofcathy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is an outsider POV on the favourite White Collar threesome.  This is a view from a part of the world that the show never reveals.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(The) Agency

Michi ran her thumbnail over the yellow sticker on the cover of the file, sticking down a recalcitrant corner. The yellow square lined up perfectly with the blue one below it, and the orange one below that. The colour code, printed out on a piece of paper and carefully sealed in plastic, is neatly taped to the top of the file cabinet, but she's been at the Johnson Agency long enough to know what the colours all mean. Blue means dog in the house, and orange means they pay on time. Yellow isn't on the list, but she knows what it means too. Yellow means someone who works for the government or the police. Yellow means you can't send anyone who hasn't got good papers.

There are notes in the back of the file—the old ones in Millicent's formal British schoolgirl hand she'd brought from Trinidad, the new ones in the big loopy writing that Julia learned in her New York public school. They say things like _Mrs. Burke is very kind and tries to be helpful_ and _Mr. Burke leaves before seven and is rarely home before eight_ and _dog is large but friendly_ and _do not open the door to the man from the red-brick house next door_. Michi has been in the office for years now, and reading the notes in the files is as close as she gets to being in a new house with new things that tell stories about their owners even when they're not home. It's the only part of her old job that she misses.

There are unwritten notes too—things Millicent had passed on to Michi before she retired. Not gossip, Millicent never gossiped, but she would always tell you the things she thought you needed to know. Millicent had shown her the Burke file one day, and told her things about Mrs. Burke, and how she'd asked not to have Lucy back after Lucy had foolishly said the wrong thing about babies. Michi had also heard all about how Mr. Burke would run a background check on anyone who came more than once so papers that just looked good weren't enough.

After Millicent had retired, Michi got to hear even more things that would never be written in the files. Julia did gossip, and she passed on all information, useful, trivial, scandalous or dull, and she seemed to always know the latest gossip from the Burkes' house. Things like how the Burkes' guest room had men's clothing and personal things in it for a few months, but no one ever saw their owner before they were just as suddenly gone. Or like how Mrs. Burke had started working more and had asked for someone to come twice a week. Michi had known that one already; she'd taken the call when Mrs. Burke had explained that she needed someone twice a week now and that they'd have to start doing the laundry. She'd apologized, and Michi had told her they were happy to help just like Millicent had taught her to.

Not long after that, Julia had heard about how Mrs. Burke played a Spanish language disk all the time when she was home and had brochures for resorts in Belize all over the house, and maybe it would be wise for Domenique to watch what she said when she dropped the vacuum on her foot. There'd also been a whole long story about how Julia didn't think Domenique was really Puerto Rican, and maybe her papers wouldn't be up to Mr. Burke's checking that Michi had listened to with only half an ear. Some gossip she didn't want to know. A few months later the brochures had gone, and no one was ever at home when Domenique was there, no one but the dog.

Philly only stayed on the schedule for a few weeks before she found a live-in job that paid enough, but she'd said a lady was staying in the guest room for a while, a lady who cried all the time.

The men's clothes in the closet story had started up again when Cece had started working the Burkes' house after Philly left. Cece always called it Satchmo's house, and she'd claimed they were an old man's clothes. Skinny old man, to be exact, but no one had ever seen any man, not even Mr. Burke, in a long time. Cece had also said that some mornings there were a dozen coffee cups in the sink, and there were more wine bottles in the recycling bin, which always made Michi worry that there would be a divorce, and they'd maybe lose a client or, if they were lucky, they'd end up with two.

Sometimes divorce was good for business, but the one time Michi had said that where Charmaine could hear, she'd got an earful about just what the Pope thought about that. Michi had sat on hard wooden chairs in Catholic school for a lot of years and didn't need Charmaine to explain all that to her. Telling her that hadn't really helped much, though.

It was Idalis, filling in for Cece who was out with the flu, who'd finally got to see the mystery man. Idalis had dropped into the office after and made a meal out of her juicy bit of gossip big enough for everyone to share. Michi couldn't wait to tell Cece just how wrong her guesses had been. Idalis had actually called him pretty, and everybody had teased her even though they knew Idalis didn't date men, and that she'd been looking at Julia M., not to be confused with Julia in the office, in a certain way for weeks now.

It occurred to Michi, that if Idalis dropped in again today, she could get her to take some of the chicken soup that Julia in the office had brought in over to Cece and see if she needed someone to pick up the kids after school. Idalis would get to tell the story of seeing the pretty, young Mr. Caffrey and spoil Michi's chances, but Cece's sister was in Florida with her employers—and no one envied her, Florida couldn't make up for the Davis' twins even if New York was wet and grey and cold in February—so she didn't have anyone to help but old Mrs. Bailey across the hall, and she'd had to start using a cane in the cold months, so Cece's two might be more than she could handle. If anybody needed to be in Florida in the winter it was Mrs. Bailey.

Michi slid the Burke file back into the drawer between the Burington and the Burkowski files and closed the drawer. Next up was the Cabot file. It had a story to it too, almost as interesting as the Burkes'.


End file.
